bugs!?!

[Taterelder]

for about the past week I have had THOUSANDS of tiny bugs that sit on top of the water of my pool... they are very small and only visible as the sun starts to set. they are very tiny, the size of a very small ant... barely visible to the naked eye... anyone have any ideas what these could be and if there is anyway to get rid of them? I live here in the midwest and have never seen them before. but they are everywhere in the pool and too small to fish out with my net

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Skimmer socks will catch em.

 

[JohnT]

A cool wet spring has us swarming with every kind of gnat imaginable here in Indiana. Run the pump so the skimmer can get them.

 

[Taterelder]

the pump runs constantly, and the topwater of the skimmer is full of them, but there still seems to be thousands... its weird, they hop atop the water, and no matter how many there are in the skimmer, theres 5 times as many lurking atop the water everywhere... I am gonna try to get some insecticide and spray is all around outside the pool and see if I can reduce their numbers.... and I will let you know... could this be a reason its tough to keep my FC from reducing faster than normal? (i.e. the bugs die and sink and decompose?

 

[JasonLion]

No. While bugs do have a slight contribution to using up chlorine, it isn't significant compared to other things that use chlorine.

 

[Taterelder]

So I still have thousands of these tiny critters that accumulate at the top of my water... I have read somethings online about what can steer them away from sitting on top of my pool... I have sprayed a barrier of insecticide around the perimeter of my pool... and even went and got a bottle of the insect spray you attach to your garden hose and nothing has worked...

I have read online that diluting dawn dish soap in a small water bottle helps(not enough to make bubbles in the water, but enough to break the surface tension of the water so they just sink, or decide not to land), my question is what effects with a little dish soap have on my recommended chemical levels?

 

[JasonLion]

Dish soap can cause foaming, even in very small quantities, and will get broken down by chlorine fairly quickly. A better long term solution would be to add borates, which will work in the same way and has some other advantages.

 

[Taterelder]

I couldn't find much about borates in the pool school... can you give me more info on what they are and what they do?

thx

 

[JasonLion]

Take a look at this topic to learn more about borates.